Recap of the past weekend’s competition at the American Open Series 3rd Event in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Grand Rapids is a very nice town and the people were very nice and welcoming. The venue was very large and spacious and suitable for our event. Performance One Weightlifting brought several athletes to this competition and we are very proud of them all. First up, was Tram Tran lifting in the 53 kilo A Session. Tram had suffered a injury in the last month leading into this event and we weren’t sure whether or not she would be able to compete. She pushed through and made a great effort despite not being 100%. She Snatched 61 kilos and Clean and Jerked 75 kilos. She finished with 136 Total and in 9th Place Overall. She is very positive and we know once she is healthy she can make a big push to be in the top 5 of this weight class.

Next up was Jenny Clouse. Jenny had to lift late and night which was out of the norm for her. She made the appropriate adaptations and dealt with her situation. Jenny Snatched 63 kilos which tied her Competition Best and Clean & Jerked 80 kilos for a New Competition Record. She finished with 143 kilo Total which was another Competition Record. Jenny finished in 2nd Place in the Master’s Division of the AO Series 3.

We are very happy with both girls performance and we look forward to the next big National Competition.

This past weekend we had 15 athletes from Performance One Advanced Sports Training Compete at the Junior Nationals held in Kansas City, MO. We are so proud of all of their hard work, attempts, hitting personal records, and we had a number who brought home medals. Kaija Bramwell took 2nd place in the Snatch, 2nd place in C&J, and 2nd place overall! Kolton Koontz took 3rd in the snatch, 2nd in the clean and jerk, and 2nd place overall. Dennis Tan took 3rd in the snatch and 3rd overall. Becky Walker placed 3rd in snatch, 1st in the clean and jerk, took 1st place overall. Becky was the first ever to become a junior national winner in that weight class of 90 kilos! Coach Joe Micela and all the Performance One coaching staff had a great trip coaching the team and are impressed by the results of each individual athlete. Now back to training to reach our next goals!

We use the term “Vertical Extension” when describing how we want the athletes body to finish.

In reality the athlete will have a slight lean backward as they are trying to “Finish the Extension”. It has been my coaching experience to never verbally communicate to an athlete to lean back during the Final Extension. Doing so can lead to an excessive lean causing the athlete to jump substantially backward which is not desirable. Too much of a hyper-extension of the back can cause the bar to separate from the body. This will result in the bar never reaching it’s desired final position. The bar will drop out in front of the athlete. The second common error with athletes leaning back too far during the Final Extension is that the athletes deliberately pulls the bar back with them taking away from the barbells vertical flight causing it to level out into a more horizontal ark/trajectory. Again not favorable, because it is this horizontal ark can lead to the bar missing it’s final target and traveling to fast behind the athlete for the athlete to safely stop the momentum it created on the bar. Athletes will most likely “Miss” the bar behind them in a “Looping” fashion.

We want to keep the bar traveling as vertical as possible with minimal Horizontal Displacement as possible. That is why it is Ok to use cue words such as Vertical and Straight to express to the athlete how both the bar and their body wants to finish during Extension. The fact that the athletes body moves backward slightly should, in my opinion, never be communicated to the athlete. They should never consciously be trying to attempt it. Hopefully this Coaching Advice can help you during your next Training Session.

Here 2x Master’s National Weightlifting Championship Bronze Medalist Jenny Clouse showing a drill we use at Performance One to work on finishing the Snatch Movement in a Vertical Receiving Position. Jenny is using 55 kilos with this exercise. She is striving to fully extend and keep the bar as close to her body as possible. It is important that she does not create excessive Horizontal Displacement of her Torso. Jenny does a great job with this drill.

Master’s Lifters Jenny Clouse Clean and Jerks 80 kilos on 2/25/16 during training. This was a New Personal Record for Jenny at the time. Way to go Jenny! Keep up all the hard work. She is training for the 2016 Master National Weightlifting Championships in Savannah, Georgia in April.

Master’s American Open Champion Jenny Clouse Jerking 80 kilos during her Saturday Training Session. She is training hard for the Master’s Senior National Championships. Jenny competes in the 58 kilo class.

Master’s Weightlifter Jenny Clouse is shown here Snatching 55 & 58 kilos in subsequent lifts. We compared them to show how consistent her technique is with lifts of 100% & 105% of her Best Snatch. Jenny has be working extremely hard at Weightlifting and back in April of 2015 she won the Bronze Medal in the 58 kilo 40-44 year old age division. She is showing great promise and wants that National Master’s Title. With this lift she has put on 8 kilos unto her Snatch since Master’s Nationals. Keep it up Jenny!